Breakfast Under The Sea

You may be asking yourself what these two vastly different food items have in common.

Fish and pancakes?

Ew?

Let me assure you, there is nothing 'ew' about it and I'm going to show you how so.

First, a little back-story; getting those all-too important beta-vitamin-omega what-have-yous into a child's diet is like pulling teeth sometimes. I say 'fish for dinner' and my daughter suddenly comes down with a rare cases of full-body heaves. I've done many things with our scaly little underwater friends (or their corpses, to be exact) trying to mask the fish out of the goodness and have found some success. But this one takes the cake...the pancake.

So here is what you're going to do;

Fish-a-licious Pancake-Battered Tilapia

Thaw yourself some Tilapia fillets (or if you're fancy, just yank the fresh ones from the plastic)

About one pound for a family of four.

Whisk yourself up one egg with a dash of water into a lovely egg wash in a shallow dish.

Get about one cup of dry pancake mix, your choice of brand, and toss in about

a tablespoon of Mrs. Dash original seasoning blend

Followed by a around one rounded teaspoon of

dried cilantro.

Mix that up well in a shallow dish, as well.

Give your cooking pan a heavy hit of olive oil and preheat until hot but not scorching.

While your pan is preheating, take the fillets and douse them in the egg wash then toss them around in the pancake mix. Fry for about four minutes each side in the olive oil until the fish flakes and is cooked through.

Light, flavorful and packed with omega-what-nots and other things kids hate.

But they will love the fun flavor of this fish and you will, too!

-A.S.

Crumb-y Old Fish Tacos

My daughter hates it when I announce we're having fish tacos. She does a fair amount of whining and complaining but, being the evil mom that I am, I make them anyway. She has consistantly refused to even taste them...until now!
One thing my daughter does like are Ritz crackers. I am currently out of breadcrumbs so I thought, 'Hmm...wonder what a fish breading with Ritz would be like.'
Delicious and Savanna-approved is what it is.
"It tastes like a chicken nugget, mom!"

So here it is, Ritz Fish Breading
Take a sleeve of Ritz and dump it in the blender. Blend until smooth. Add some lemon and pepper seasoning, dried cilantro and whatever else you feel like adding. Blend again.
Get three bowls similar in size.
In one bowl, put about a cup of flour. The second, whip up a few eggs for a dip. Third bowl, put your Ritz mix in it.
Take about a pound of your favorite fish (I had cod that night because it was on sale. Tilapia is my favorite normally.) Thaw as directed (if frozen).
Drench fillets in the flour then the egg wash then coat in Ritz breading. Add a few tablespoons olive oil to a big pan. Fry the fillets until the flesh flakes with a fork, until the breading is golden brown.

Meanwhile...
here is a super fast pico de gallo recipe I whipped up.

Four roma tomatoes, chopped.
Two handfulls cilantro, chopped.
A few tablespoons white onion, finely chopped.
A nice big splash of lime juice.
A few shakes of black pepper.
Mix well.

We always use warmed white corn tortillas, a squeeze of La Victoria mild red sauce and a smear of sour cream (or Rubio's white sauce) along with our pico and fish. Kelli has the great Rubio's sauce recipe for fish tacos but I'll leave it up to her to give it you!
Love fish tacos!